After stamping, and masking, and stamping my images, and then stamping some ink splatters on top in various colors, I got to work on my sentiments, which I heat embossed in white on black paper. I then added them to each card with some foam tape to give a bit of dimension. The sentiments came from the same Sweet Succulents stamp set.

I love how the boldness of the sentiment contrasts with the rest of the color scheme.

My love affair with air plants continues. So much so that I fashioned an air plant out of an image from the LLD Sweet Succulents stamp set for this card!

To start, I stamped one of the succulents from the stamp set, colored it with my copics and cut it out using it’s coordinating die. I then separated some twine into very thin strands and affixed three strands to the back of the succulent image with some tape. I made it so that two of the strands came down around the bottom of the succulent and could then be pulled up so that they laid on top of the image. The third strand stayed at the back. This way, when I collected the three strands together it looked as if the succulent was hanging in the air, supported by the strings.

I got out some of my scalloped-edge paper from Paper Source and stamped the Hello Sunshine sentiment (from the Altenew Hello Sunshine set) in my favorite VersaFine Black Onyx ink.I then affixed the succulent to the card with some foam tape and gathered up the strings. I tied a knot toward the top, just for a little added interest, and affixed the rest of the twine onto the back of the card with some tape. I tied a bit of extra string around where the knot was so that some loose ends of string hung down.

I mounted the scalloped panel onto a card base cut from Neenah Desert Storm card stock. I decided it looked a little to plain, so I added a bunch of random dots here and there using a Pico Embellisher in Tuxedo Black. I contemplated adding sequins, but I figured I should leave well enough alone!

Like this:

Today I’m excited to share with you a little card set I made over the weekend.

Lately, I’m turning into somewhat of a plant lady. I have houseplants scattered all over my house, and I’m especially in love with succulents and air plants. So, when I saw the LLD Sweet Succulents stamp set, I knew I wanted to make some cute cards with it.

I wanted to create a cluster of potted plants on each card, so I started by making masks using my inkadinkadoo masking paper. Using masks allows you to build up a scene by first stamping whatever you want to be in the foreground (in my case, the central pot), then masking that image off, then stamping your next image (in my case, the plant that would be in the central pot), then adding a mask to that, and so on. Anything you stamp on top of a masked image will end up in the background. The best part is removing all of your masks at the end to reveal the scene!

I stamped on some A2-size scallop cards that I picked up from the clearance section at Paper Source. I thought the rounded edges of the paper would be a nice contrast to the visual spikey-ness of the cactus plants.

I made four cards, and decided to make each scene a little bit different, so I used and re-used my masks a lot. Even though the arrangement of plants differed on each card, I made sure to use the same grouping of three pots in the lower left, and stuck to the same color scheme for each card as well.

I used my copic markers to do most of my coloring on each card. You’ll notice that certain plants and certain pots retain the same color scheme across each card, which I think helps to tie everything together so that it all looks like one complete set. Doing this also kept me from having to put a lot of extra thought into my coloring.

There is some variation from one to the next, but that’s the beauty of handmade cards! To finish up, I added some extra shading here and there with a few Prismacolor colored pencils. It seemed to give everything a bit of an extra pop. I also made sure to add a light shadow under each pot, to ground the images.

When it came time to add a sentiment, I went with “Hope you have a beautiful day” from the Doodle Buds stamp set. I thought this particular sentiment went nicely with the overall look I was going for.

Once that was all set, I adhered some fun foam to the back of each scalloped panel, and then mounted all my finished panels onto card bases that I cut from some gray card stock.

Voila! I hope you like these as much as I do!

P.S. As I said before, I’m a sucker for succulents (ha!) and I’m trying to learn to identify them by name. One of my favorites are Haworthia. Especially good for me because they are very tolerant if I forget to water them for a day or too… :) I’d love to hear what your favorite types of succulents are!